Soulburned: The School of Souls
Chapter 21 (Part 2): Nightmares
Thale sat in a large metal chair. Large leather straps protruded ominously from its back.
The Archmage and Marelda leaned over him. Each wore the clean white garb of a Mender. A large mass of Soul-Light hovered behind thier heads, illuminating the chamber. It was cold and metallic, devoid of any life or porous surface. It smelled like nothing, having been scrubbed to perfect sterility.
A golden dish of silver, liquid Logos was suspended in the air in between the Archmage and Artificer, directly behind Thale.
"Are you ready, Thale?" The Archmage asked.
"Uh... Yes." Anxiety clawed at Thale's insides, and he took a calming breath.
"You'll need to remain conscious for this to work. Marelda will keep you as numbed as possible with her Eros, but this will hurt."
"Okay."
"We're going to strap you down now. We need you to stay as still as possible."
"Okay."
"Try to stay calm.
"Okay."
How in the Void and I supposed to stay calm?! He thought. You're going to cut off the top of my head!
His heart rate rose.
"Calm, Thale. Deep breaths. You'll need to use your Eros to keep your heart rate steady."
"Right... sorry."
They began tightening the straps around his chest and legs. The Shrive Blade was laid against his Quick-Wood and Void-infused leg.
"How many times have you done this?" Thale asked.
"You'll be the first person Marked in this way since the Iris was built." The Archmage said.
Thale swallowed the lump in his throat.
"So, four hundred years or so?"
"Calm, Thale."
Right.
He took a long, shuddering breath.
"We're about to begin." Marelda said, "Do you want me to run through the ceremony again?"
"Yes, please."
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
"We will be removing the top of your skull... exposing your brain." She started.
He swallowed.
"We'll then begin carefully etching glyphs and runes into your brain tissue. We'll then fill those etchings with Logos. This will sear the proto-Mark directly into you. Then we'll close you up. With the newer healing spells, we've developed in the last century, you won't even have a scar."
"Then what?"
"Then you rest, and you learn."
"Will I need to take a Trial?"
"Not anytime soon. You won't be ingesting the Logos, doing so would kill you outright. You'll need to let your capacity increase naturally until it's large enough to handle the 1st Trial."
Thale didn't respond, just sat and focused on his breathing.
"Alright. Here we go." The Archmage said.
He began chanting.
The air in the chamber grew cold, almost icy. Thale picked a point on the wall in front of him and stared at it, doing his best to ignore whatever was happening behind him.
Marelda's Eros blanketed Thale's head, displacing his own and numbing him to the majority of sensation.
There was a loud noise, causing Thale to flinch. He squeezed the armrest tightly.
"Easy, Thale. Bit a pressure here."
He had a sudden, excruciating headache. His entire body tingled for a moment.
The headache vanished.
"First Glyph done." the Archmage said.
It was another few hours before they finished, and Thale was able to relax.
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"You look... the same," Magnus said. "I expected the top of your head to be on sideways or something."
Thale examined himself in his mirror, back in his chambers. Magnus was right, he looked the same.
"Did it work?" the veteran Guardian asked.
Thale had been able to sense his Logos from the very moment Marelda had dismissed her numbing spell. It was different from his Eros, but not completely foreign. It was just another part of the same Soul, after all. His Eros was hard, unyielding, and felt like hard yet flexible bands of metal wrapped around his muscles and tendons. His Logos, on the other hand, was soft and fluid. It seeped and flowed through his mind, pooling in the empty spaces.
"Yes."
"How do you feel?"
"I feel amazing," he said.
It was the truth. He felt more complete. His thoughts were sharper and clearer as if every moment until now he'd existed in a thick mist, but it was finally starting to clear."
"Good." Magnus said, "Forgive me if I don't jump in line behind you though... I don't fancy the idea of Marelda poking around inside my skull... Knowing her she'd scramble it up something fierce."
"You two don't seem to get along." Thale said, "Bad blood?"
"Nah, she just likes getting under my skin."
"How long have you known her?"
"For as long as I've been Guardian Commander. We didn't interact much before that though. Woman's been Artificer for longer than I've been in Sclera."
Thale raised an eyebrow.
"You're not from Sclera?"
"Void, lad. With an accent like this?" Magnus scoffed, "I thought you Wizards were brighter than that. I'm from the Isles."
Is that what I am now? Thale thought, A Wizard?
He rubbed his forehead. He didn't have a Wizard's Mark, he didn't feel right claiming the title, at least not yet.
Magnus cleared his throat, pulling Thale's attention away from the mirror.
"Get dressed lad. It's time for you to start your assignment."
"Assignment?"
Magnus shook his head.
"Didn't you hear? We're letting the wolf run loose among the sheep, and you're to be its shepherd."